A stoic century from veteran wicketkeeper Jonathan Batty ensured Surrey enjoyed the best of day one against promotion-chasing Northamptonshire as the Brown Caps reached the close on 305 for five.

Batty, 35, who looks set to be deposed behind the stumps at the Oval next year by recent Worcestershire signing Steven Davies, proved his mettle with a 271-ball hundred that may yet force Surrey's cricket manager Chris Adams to keep him in his side solely as a batsman.

On a flat and unusually lifeless pitch in SE11, Batty featured in stands worth 50 with opening partner Michael Brown (31), 73 for the third wicket with his skipper Stewart Walters (40), and then an excellent 104 in 31 overs for the fourth wicket in tandem with Usman Afzaal.

Batting first after Walters had won the 10.15am toss, Surrey were gifted a sound start as Johannes van der Wath and David Lucas all but wasted the new ball with a selection of wides and loose deliveries.

Van der Wath strayed both sides of the stumps, while Lucas sent down three wides in his opening over from the Vauxhall End, allowing Surrey to get off to a flyer as 50 came up in the 11th over of the day.

But, without addition to the score, Brown pushed at a van der Wath leg-cutter to edge to wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien.

Sri Lankan Arun Harinath added a typically wristy 20 but his cameo stay ended predictably when he edged an airy drive to Riki Wessels at second slip to make it 91 for two at lunch.

Walters and Batty dug in after the break as Northamptonshire's attack tightened up their act but Walters, in aiming to drive through mid-off against the innocuous spin of Nicky Boje, got a leading edge that spooned to Lucas at cover point.

With his score on 49, Batty survived a big appeal for a catch at the wicket when sweeping against Boje, but the right-hander dug in thereafter to reach a deserved fifty from 175 balls.

Both he and Afzaal opened up just before tea, Batty hitting a straight six off Boje while Afzaal played the shot of the day, a clipped, leg-side six off his toes against Andrew Hall on his way to a 75-minute half-century.

The stylish left-hander went soon after tea when, in aiming another boundary through square-leg, he picked out Stephen Peters to go for 62 from the second delivery with the second new ball from van der Wath.

Batty eventually reached three figures after 314 minutes at the crease when a misfield at mid-on allowed him through for a scampered single to post his 19th hundred for Surrey, his second against Northamptonshire and his first of the summer.

There was just enough time for Northamptonshire to claim a fifth success of the day when Matt Spriegel (three) played across the line of a Lucas off-cutter to lose his off stump, leaving Batty to make it through to stumps on 110 with power to add on day two.